David Wendl-Berry
David Wendl-Berry trained as a wilderness guide at the School of Lost Borders in California, under the guidance of Steven Foster and Meredith Little – pioneers who first brought the Vision Quest into Western culture. David is the preeminent Vision Quest guide in the UK and has been taking people through this process for 32 years. He is a trained Rites Of Passage Guide and Counsellor and works with many different techniques including Reiki, animal visualisation therapy and eco-psychology. Over the last 30 years his work as a Vision Quest guide has brought a deep connection to the power of the land in Snowdonia, which gives David immense insight and connection to his participants’ journeys.
He has led all types of people through the Vision Quest, from teenage street kids to drug addicts, successful business men and women, people who have been diagnosed HIV and AIDS and even a wonderful lady in her 70s!
Before becoming a wilderness guide David was a high-flier in the media industry and led the archetypal life of western success and excess. Despite his apparently enviable lifestyle, he was aware of a nagging dissatisfaction; a hole that was being filled with material goods and indulgent activities. After exploring various spiritual paths from meditation to martial arts and even therapy, without finding what he was looking for, he bumped into an old friend who was attending a talk by Sun Bear, a Native American Medicine Man. David went along and from that moment, he knew his life had changed forever. He had found what was missing – a connection to the land, to the whole of nature.
Soon after meeting Sun Bear, he quit his job and found himself on a plane to Washington State, about to join an apprentice screening program and do his first Vision Quest. That led to 2 years of travelling the Americas, learning from Medicine Men and Women of many different tribes before he came to the School for Lost Borders in Eastern California.
Now, as well as guiding people through the Vision Quest, David also trains others to become guides themselves.
“There is nothing more beautiful, more moving and more touching, than the look in questers’ eyes when they return.” ~ Steven Foster.
Listen to interviews with David on Spotify
Jen Gold
Jen has been working with David for 17 years.
She did her first Vision Quest in New Mexico in 2007 and another with David in 2009 in Wales. She is committed to a yearly Vision Quest for herself and has supported two or three Vision Quests every year with David.
She has witnessed and experienced the profound life changing and transforming process of VQ. She has a deep, loving connection to nature especially with the animals, birds, insects and faeries.
Jen is a Medical Herbalist and Healing Practitioner working with Plant Medicines, Kundalini Yoga, Reiki and Soul Retrieval. She feels passionately about supporting people reconnect with themselves and the world through being close to the earth.
www.reconnecttoself.scot
She holds a strong, nurturing, caring space and enjoys the lightness that playfulness and humour can bring 😊
Dr Denise Taylor
Dr Denise Taylor
Denise is a Chartered Psychologist,
Vision Quest Guide and Elder.
Her first Vision Quest with David was life changing. It lead to a refocus in her research for her doctorate to consider how people find meaning in life after full time work and deepened her love of nature resulting in buying her own wood where she runs nature based retreats and is intrigued by the footage on her trailcam.
A second Vision Quest, lead to reclaiming the word Old and to step up to the role of elder, both sharing wisdom and to continue to learn and develop, both about herself and the world around.
A long-life learner, Denise completed 3 years training to be a Deep Imagery Practitioner access our deep imagination. She has a strong interest in sharing knowledge of the four shields and earth awareness activity alongside wisdom, elderhood, later life, and transitions. She is also the author of 8 non-fiction books. Denise is a member of The School of Mythopoetics looking deeper into mythology, ritual, and culture.
Read more about Denise at:
www.denisetaylor.co.uk
